How do I clean the inside glass?

Rinse them out with warm, soapy water and a soft bottle brush. Avoid boiling water, as thermal shock will easily crack old glass. If a cloudy residue remains, it is likely sickness etched into the glass by the original chemical contents. Scrubbing will not remove this damage, so dealers leave it alone as part of the object's history.

I have a bottle with a stopper stuck firmly in the neck that simply refuses to budge. Is there a safe way to loosen it?

Take your time. Forcing a stuck closure almost always ends in a broken neck or a sheared stopper finial. Some dealers wrap a hot, damp cloth around the neck to gently expand the outer glass. Tap the stopper lightly with a wooden spoon handle while twisting. If it still sits tight, leave it. A seized stopper is common in antique apothecary bottles that once held sticky tinctures.

What does the symbol mean?

Those symbols are historic apothecary weights and measures for drachms and ounces. Chemists used them for quick visual reference. Latin text replaced alchemical symbols by the nineteenth century.

A lot of these shop rounds seem to have strange abbreviated Latin words on the labels. Why didn't they just use plain English for the ingredients?

Latin served as the universal language of medicine and science across Europe. It allowed a complex prescription written by a physician in London to be accurately dispensed by a pharmacist travelling abroad. Using traditional abbreviations also kept the exact nature of the treatment private from the patient. This guarded the trade secrets of the profession, preventing people from trying to source the raw materials and mix the cures themselves.

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Antique Apothecary Bottles

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Antique apothecary bottles are blown or moulded glass vessels, often fitted with ground stoppers and painted labels, originally used by pharmacists to safely store raw chemical ingredients and tinctures.